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Monday, August 03, 2009

I seem to remember reading somewhere that Elizabeth Tudor had problems with painful menses and also had pain in her face and jaw sometimes, which made me think of TMJ. I really wish I had written down WHERE I had read that, as it may have been a completely unreliable source, but I didn't, and now I can't find any information about these health issues Elizabeth may or may not have had.

Would you happen to have any idea if this is accurate information, or if I was just reading something utterly fabricated?

I'm also trying to find descriptions of Christmas celebrations at Elizabeth's court.

Christopher Hibbert in ‘The Virgin Queen’ says that Elizabeth ate mainly chicken and game, and even after an exhausting day’s hunting had a very small appetite, toying with her food and pushing it around her plate ‘reluctant to eat it yet unwilling to be seen to reject it’, which sounds very similar to accounts of the dinner parties of the Duchess of Windsor, who famously declared ‘you can never be too rich or too thin.’ I have always wondered if Elizabeth suffered from anorexia, although she apparently liked fine white bread and had a weakness for sweetmeats and sugary puddings.

She rarely drank any wine, Hibbert says, ‘for fear it would cloud her faculties’; Alicante wine was her favourite, although she had it diluted with three parts water.

From 1569 onwards she apparently had for several years a painful ulcer of the leg; when the discharge eventually ceased there was concern because it was supposed to have compensated for her irregular menstruation.

I only read a bit of Hibbert's book so thank you for posting this information. Does Hibbert provide sources/footnotes for the irregular menses statement?

I've also never heard of the painful ulcer on her leg. Any source for that? It doesn't seem to have slowed her down in terms of riding, hunting, or even walking which she did nearly daily most of her life.

In reading your post, I wonder if the stomach pains, headaches and aching limbs were related to her menstrual cycle - a little early-modern PMS.

Fainting fits? Does anyone have any information at all of Elizabeth having fainting fits? This sounds, to me a bit far-fetched. The only time I've heard of anything close to that would have been in the days before her death when she was without energy, did not eat, would not go to bed and had breathing difficulty - according to Robert Carey.

Swelling cheeks was probably related to her dental issues - wouldn't you think?

I've never heard the idea that she suffered from anorexia. Interesting ...that would account for several of the other symptoms Hibbert lists.

The menstrual issues ring a bell with me, and I want to say that a I've come across mentions of bad headaches. I know from personal experience (menstrual migraines... yuk) that they can be related!

It's probably been 10 years since I've read a non-fiction book on Elizabeth though, that I can't even be sure if it was in a biography or some faint recollection from a novel. That's why I try to take notes now when I read history non-fiction. :)

For another reason why Elizabeth merely toyed with her food in public, see the entry on few days back on her teeth. There is a portrait of Elizabeth done shortly after her ascension where her face looks quite swollen, almost like the "moonface" associated with Cushing's syndrome. Just before Mary died, Elizabeth had developed (or faked) an illness involving swelling and complaints of great pain when moved. As Cushing's that is not caused by modern treatment with steroids is associated only with an adrenal tumor, which would neither clear up on its own or be treated by surgery, probably what she had was a kidnesy infection. It may well have been brought on by stress.

The extremely tiny waist shown in Elizabeth's cornation portrait looks like aristic license to me-- even anorexics have ribs! She was relativewly thin, but "Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd", a treasure trove of quotes from original materiels, shows that in the middle of her reign some of her dresses where sent back to the tailor to be "enlarg'd", made larger. The author thinks this means that Elizabeth put on some weight, as people often do in their middle years.

In Elizabeth's last illness, she developed an abcess in her throat and could not swallow even broth until it burst a few days before she died. No doubt she died emaciated and dehydrated, as those who are now "in hospice" often do-- the dying loose interest in food and drink.

I’m afraid there are no sources or footnotes of any sort in Hibbert’s book, only the bibliography - and looking at that I couldn’t even hazard a guess as to what came from where.

He does say that her health improved as she got older (perhaps the migraines ceased when she entered the menopause, would you think?) and that she had great stamina, even as an elderly woman. I remember reading about her having the headaches when she was a young woman, and how some courtiers saw them as appearing at very convenient times.

She seems to have some of the symptoms of gall stones or hiatus hernia, which would explain her digestive pains, careful eating and the small amounts, but really, when you look at the list of ailments, I would think that most women, in the course of a lifetime, could claim to have had most of them.

Page 31 (just after Katherine Parr died)“...she was suffering from violent headaches and pain behind the eyes.... and when she reached the age of menstruation, her periods were highly irregular or, as some reported, non-existent, as in the case of amenorrhoea.”

P.35 Had not properly recovered by the time of Seymour’s death, after which she took to her bed and had to be attended by her brother’s physician.

P.42Mary wants her to attend Mass in the Chapel Royal. Says she is too ill with stomach pains but then decides it would be prudent to attend and ‘wearing a suffering air’ asks one of the Queen’s ladies to rub her stomach for her.

p.45Too poorly with cold and headache to leave her bed to answer questions regarding Wyatt’s rebellion. Queen Mary’s physicians diagnose ‘watery humours’; Hibbert says it also sounds like inflammation of the kidneys.

P.53In custody at Woodstock – had a swollen face (although Hibbert says she was always crying) had to be bled; afterwards was better in health but not in temper.

P. 109“The Queen was what nowadays would be called exceptionally highly-strung. She often came close to hysteria and more than once fainted when overpoweringly distressed.”

Does not give instances of this and continues with the list of ailments I gave in my first post. Also says that ‘envoys’, whom he does not name, described her as ‘stick-thin’ and ‘as white as a ghost’.

I was using the word 'anorexia' as meaning loss of appetite, perhaps frequently, or just having little interest in food, rather than an aversion to it. I think the fact that Elizabeth was fond of sweetstuffs shows she did not suffer from what is known today as anorexia nervosa.

Thanks for the quotes. I agree with you that most of the illnesses Hibbert is describing could be associated with any normally healthy woman. I know for sure that if I were Elizabeth and it was at all possible to concoct an illness during Wyatt's rebellion I would have.

I'm still a bit flummoxed about the 'fainting' bit. I either haven't been reading the same sources, or Hibbert has some special source he hasn't shared with the rest of us. I just don't ever remember reading about her fainting - or even coming 'close to hysteria'. Anger - yes; merry - yes; stern - yes; flirtatious - yes; hysterical - no. I hate to say it but it sounds a bit patriarchal of Hibbert.

Anyone care to disagree or provide more info?

As for very white, it was an English fashion to lighten the skin with cosmetics concoctions that we would never dream of using. the thin issue though is intriguing to think about.

It also seems to me that a lot of these complaints could have been brought on by stress and anxiety. Shortness of breath and fainting spells. Perhaps fainting spells may have been the phrase used, but it was really some type of lightheadedness? That happened to me at a job I used to have, regularly. As Queen of England in the mid to late 16th century, the stress had to be enormous, to understate it.

Thanks for the Holiday info., Marilyn! I think she should have had a bit more wine, though. Sounds like she could have used it. . .

If her diet was primarily simple sugars, it would have led to irritability, and the sugar crashes may have brought on headaches as well as the "fainting spells", waddaya think?

These are the only references to fainting and a bad leg I’ve come across.

Jane Dunn in 'Elizabeth & Mary’ says that at the beginning of 1554 Elizabeth was weakened and her face and body swollen, probably due to kidney inflammation, but that Queen Mary’s two doctors confirmed that the condition was not life-threatening and she was fit to travel."Elizabeth was in no position to demur. She was so unwell, however, that she came close to fainting ’three or four times’ as they got her ready to depart. (cites ‘Actes and Monuments’, John Foxe; revised & corrected by Rev. Josiah Pratt 1877, p119) ....Her progress (i.e. to London) was painful and slow....There were rumours, as there always were with unexplained illnesses, that Elizabeth had been poisoned, ’because she is so distended and exhausted that she is a sad sight to see’.” (Cites ‘Girlhood of Queen Elizabeth’, Frank A. Mumby, 1909, p108.)

Sir John Neale in 'Queen Elizabeth I’ also describes her as having those symptoms at this time.(Neale does not give footnotes or bibliography, and the book first appeared in the 1930’s, but it is still, in my opinion, a very good read.)

P.222"She had foibles: good health was one. Most of her life she enjoyed remarkable health and hated to be ill or even thought ill. In 1577 she several times commanded Leicester to write to Burghley, then at Buxton, asking him to send her some of the medicinal water from there. When it arrived she mistrusted ’it will not be of the goodness here it is there’; though the truth was that she had been told people were talking of it,'as though her Majesty had some sore leg’; and was half angry with Leicester now for writing to Burghley!”

P 287When she was 53 and age was beginning to catch up with Leicester, Walsingham etc, Neale says she was in very good health “torpid neither in mind nor body...She had no tendency to stoutness, had not as yet become angular...”

P 323Regular exercise and abstemious habits had stood her in good stead "...as did her scorn for the fantastic physic with which most of her friends dosed and disordered themselves... True, she occasionally, very occasionally, had some little ailment; 'in another body no great matter, but much in a great princess’.”

I have a feeling that the last paragraph says it all! And,as Anonymous points out,the accumulated stress on Elizabeth must have been beyond anything we lesser mortals can comprehend.

Thank you for the references. I agree with you that Neale is still a good read and I would not quibble with his research. And in this case I agree with his assessment that she was generally in very good health.

I think the illnesses Elizabeth suffered during Mary's reign were not extraordinary given the circumstances.

On the subject of Elizabeth's ailments. I am sure most of her problems were really stress re-lated. You note, when ever she was to make her first decisions on government issues...she started to claim she was unwell, as I feel it gave her time to collect herself and allowed time to considor the problems effects...should she get things wrong. I think she was very scared at first... then as she became more competant and realised she had 'Cecils'support, she only then got 'so stressed and ill' in times of extreme danger. Sure did did always have headaches, also 'suffered with her menses' and stomach problems, but all these relate to extreme stress and worry of the gigantic weight put upon her by becoming Queen. I am sure in times of real danger she did use these ailments to keep her from Court and out of the way from her accusers. If she was unable to face them...time might just be her saviour.

Hi, I'm new. The discussion I read seems to focus somewhat on QE's "feinting" spells. One authority, apparently, for the fact that QE did have feinting spells is the poet John Donne in his "Conclave Ignati" where he indicates that QE "often in Ecclipses falls into swownes, and is at the point of death. . ."

Some of Elizabeth's health issues seem symptomatic of hyperthryroidism, a condition in which the sufferer's thyroid gland produces too much hormone. Fainting could be a sign of this because issues with the thyroid can result in high or irregular heart rhythm. The fact that she ate so much sugary food along with having high energy levels despite a lack of appetite might also indicate thyroid issues. A physical characteristic of some thyroid conditions are bulging eyes and goiter.

The fainting spells can be likened to the hot weather combined with the heavy dresses and tight bodices worn in the era.

I was brought to this blog because I, too, wondered if Q.E.I was anorexic, but one of the posts suggests that anorexia was not a concern of the time. I'm going to have to agree with her/him.

The last post indicates a hyperthyroid disease, which may be possible, but her lack of appetite (other than sweets) would rule this out.

I've read somewhere that she had bad teeth; could it be possible that this was the major contribution to her loss of appetite, illnesses and mood swings? She must have had a painful time masticating and did not eat chewy foods (like meat) because of the discomfort? Bad oral hygiene also causes tooth abscess, which is quite painful. "In some cases, a tooth abscess may perforate bone and start draining into the surrounding tissues creating local facial swelling. In some cases, the lymph glands in the neck will become swollen and tender in response to the infection. It may even feel like a migraine as the pain can transfer from the infected area." – can this can explain the migraines and swollen face?

"Severe complications include Ludwig's angina, which is a combination of growing infection and cellulitis which closes the airway space causing suffocation in extreme cases. Also infection can spread down the tissue spaces to the mediastinum which has significant consequences on the vital organs such as the heart. Another complication, usually from upper teeth, is a risk of septicaemia (infection of the blood)” Blood infections may possibly explain the unexplained fevers?

Regarding whether a boy had been slipped into her place:From "The Queen's Bed""Cecil, typically methodical and judicious, weighed the ‘objections’ against the ‘benefits’ of the marriage. In an attempt to discover the truth as to Elizabeth’s health and fertility, he questioned her doctors, her laundress, and the Ladies of the Bedchamber about the Queen’s general health, menstrual cycle and the likelihood of her conceiving. He recorded his findings in a memorandum in which he concluded that..." (he concluded she could bear children)

Roger Ascham was a Scholar and Tutor to Elizabeth. He commented that the girl who had been said to soak up facts like a sponge was now more like a shallow cup — if wine was poured in too quickly, it would simply splash out again.

She was a gifted child academically, but I believe when she started to apply her famous white make up to cover the scaring from her smallpox, problems started to arise.

Her Makeup was rich in lead. I think Elizabeth suffered from lead poisoning. The symptoms of which are as follows

I have read a lot of nonfiction about Elizabeth I. Her symptoms seem to line up with an autonomic dysfunction disorder which would explain why her flare ups occurred during times of stress and during menstruation. Depending on the severity and type of autonomic system failure, fainting, GI problems, migraines, fatigue and adrenaline surges (often mistaken as anxiety) would all occur.

Speaking of my experience with menstrual problems, I have issues that run in my family especially with periods. In 2009 I was diagnosed with menorrhagia-metorrphaigia and ovarian cysts. Things like women have today that come with diagnosis might not have had one in Queen Elizabeth I or during the Tudor era. Well anyway I get problems with painful periods,discomfort, joint aches, sinus problems which can be close to teeth, problems with some dental issues: recently I had to get two root canals done just to save two teeth, however I still have to fillings in my teeth, yet I do deal different with other personal ailments besides gynecological issues. knowing dental issues there is nothing more painful than a toothache. Queen Elizabeth I could've had Estrogen Dominance Syndrome that can cause a host of problems including dental, and premenstrual syndrome.

Hi, just my 2 cents here, but as I'm reading comments and remembering the non-fiction I've read about her, I'm thinking about autoimmune diseases, hyperthyroidism or possibly Hashimoto's, maybe Diabetic (I feel sure her father was Type2) and her tendency to crave sweets and fainting spells could very well be attributed to that. She may have suffered from kidney disease simply from the stress of being a Diabetic. Her liver/gallbladder would have been painful during high glucose periods. And as you never have just one autoimmune disease, PCOS may have been the cause of her menstrual problems and pain. Cysts bursting will most assuredly cause great pain and can cause fainting. If I'm on the right track, with no medical treatment available, her lymph nodes would have been yoyoing as her body dealt with infections. Teeth go bad quickly in autoimmune patients as well, even today. But she would have been drawn to her foods and drinks according to her health that day. She would quickly learn not to drink too much alcohol, fatty meats, and limit food intake. She also was noted to have swelling in the lower extremities when unwell. Diabetes and autoimmune diseases can cause that often. And headaches (migraines) from stress would literally bring on any autoimmune 'flare' complete with fever and pain. Her father had gout as well, which is an autoimmune disease, so genetically it makes sense.

John Guy in "Elizabeth The Forgotten Years" intimates that Elizabeth suffered from stress-induced migraines - something I have in common with her - and gives a reference from The Earl of Leicester's last letter to her as evidence: "sending to know how my gracious lady doth and what ease of her late pains she finds". Guy goes on to say that Elizabeth's migraines had resurfaced as a result of the stress of the enslaught of the Armada and it the associated pains that Leicester was asking after.